The following description of the invention is directed to the processing of a food product such as cheese to produce shreds of desired dimensions. As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, the invention is also suitable for processing other molten, moldable or plasticized food products, such as pasta. As used in the present application, the term "cheese" is intended to embrace natural cheese, processed cheese, cheese food products, imitation cheese, and the like.
Machines for producing smaller discrete portions from a larger stock of material through a series of cutting operations are well known in the art, and have been used in the production of shredded cheese. Presently, methods of producing shredded cheese involve two discrete operations. The first operation involves the manufacture of chunks of cheese. These chunks may be the by-products of another manufacturing process, such as the production of cylinders, rectangles or other shapes of cheese suitable for consumer sale. Notwithstanding the often irregular shapes of these by-products, these pieces are nonetheless a completed product.
The second operation consists of the reduction of these chunks of cheese to shreds. Food dicers such as those commercially manufactured by Urschel Laboratories are representative of the present state of the art, and are demonstrative of one prior art method and apparatus. During the first stage of this second operation, chunks of cheese are fed into a drum. Within the drum is an impeller that causes the cheese to circulate about the inner surface of the drum. A slicing knife is positioned on the inner surface of the drum so that as the chunk of cheese is forced about the inner surface of the drum it encounters the slicing knife and a slice of cheese is produced. Forcing the cheese about the inner surface of the drum in this manner also forces the slice of cheese produced to exit the drum and encounter the second and final stage of reduction.
During the second stage, the slice of cheese is fed through a feed drum and feed spindle combination to a circular knife spindle, thus cutting the slice of cheese into short ribbons. These ribbons are then cut into shorter lengths as they are driven past a cross cut knife spindle.
A second method and apparatus for shredding cheese is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,838 to Miller, et al. Like the Urschel method and apparatus discussed above, the Miller method and apparatus is directed to producing cheese shreds from a block of cheese formed from a number of smaller pieces or fragments, such as trim. The Miller et al. arrangement is based on the extrusion of predetermined cross sections of cheese which are cut as they emerge from openings in the extrusion apparatus.
An obvious disadvantage of each of these methods and apparatus is that each essentially involves two distinct operations, the first of which involves provision of a feed stock in a manner wholly unrelated to the second operation. A second disadvantage is that, because there is limited control over the size of the feed stock, control over the size of the cheese shreds is necessarily limited.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to permit production of shreds of cheese or other food products in a unified operation.
It is also an object of the invention to permit more precise control over the dimensions of the shreds than that offered by present arrangements.